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Profile
True to Life?

Profile

Species: nasicornis
Range: Late Jurassic (Tithonian, 150-145 MYA) from Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma, possibly Portugal and Tanzania
Size estimate: 18-22 ft length, 1000-2200 lbs
Discovery: Othniel Charles Marsh, 1884
Classification: dinosauria, saurischia, therapoda, ceratosauria, ceratosauridae

True to Life

Since no one has ever seen a living dinosaur, and the missing pieces of the fossil record withhold important clues to their appearance, no artistic representation of a dinosaur ever gets it 100% right. On top of that, new discoveries can change our ideas of extinct creatures drastically. So, how close does this sculpture come to what we know of the original animal?

• First, let’s examine the defining features of these beasts: the “horns.” Calling them horns constitutes a bit of a misnomer because they wouldn’t function the same way. Another one of the park’s ceratosaurians, Carnotaurus (located by the Bone Cabin Outpost on the east side), has functional horns, but those of Ceratosaurus really function more like crests. They would have been sturdier than, say, Dilophosaurus’ thin crests, but they still couldn’t take the beating of, say, ramming and goring something like a bull can. Some old illustrations go by the name and make them conical affairs; thankfully, this sculpture does not follow that misconception and portrays them as more or less plausible to their life appearance, at least in terms of shape. If Ceratosaurus really did grow them for showing off somehow, they may have been more brightly colored than currently shown here, or at least contrasting with the head so as to present a more prominent profile from a distance.
• Ceratosaurus’ skull has a distinctive profile that’s hard to describe verbally without devolving into jargon. Suffice it to say that this sculpture presents a decent profile for this species. Try comparing it to the juvenile’s skeleton in the Stewart Museum (it’s pouncing a smaller dinosaur).
• Though this sculpture avoids portraying Ceratosaurus’ teeth as generic cones, they still don’t fit the proper shape. It’s a shame, too, because Ceratosaurus’ teeth, like its skull, give its head a distinctive look. Its teeth had a more bladelike shape, recurved, and grew even larger than the ones shown here. Again, compare them with the Ceratosaurus skulls in the Stewart Museum for a sense of the difference. Nobody knows why their teeth grew proportionally larger than average for a theropod, but there is a chance that the same pressures that may have driven the development of its crests played a role: perhaps larger teeth looked more intimidating, helping Ceratosaurus to drive other predators away from its kills, or maybe even steal a carcass away from a rival by intimidating them.
• The gaps for its ears occupy most of the back of the skull’s profile, as they should.
• Some depictions of Ceratosaurus show a ridge of scales running the length of its back. This sculpture has them, though they’re more subtle than many other models. Osteoderms, which are large scales composed of bony tissue, did occur with one Ceratosaurus find, as reported in the 1920s. Scientists don’t know their exact arrangement, but since at least one of them fits over the spine on the top of one of its neck bones fairly tightly, most scientists believe they did run in a row over the top of its spine at least. They probably grew a little larger and lumpier than this sculpture has them.
• The forelimbs are . . . wrong. The proportions don’t match the skeleton or its musculature, the posture doesn’t fit the joints, and the hands fall into the usual trap of bearing four claws per hand. Ceratosaurus did have four fingers, but the fourth did not bear a claw and would have appeared as a small, fleshy nub that probably didn’t do much but give it a proper posture for imbibing tea according to British custom—pinkies out, what? They probably kept that fourth finger due to needing its bones for mounting certain muscles, but nobody knows for sure.
• The legs . . . oh, the legs. Maybe the torso of this sculpture runs short and makes the legs look bigger than they should, but if anything, it’s the other way around. Ceratosaurus did not sport thunder thighs. Granted, they do lend this sculpture a certain gravity or presence, but they don’t match the proportions of the real animal.
• The tail should be wider from top to bottom and present a more oval cross section. Its shape once led some scientists to hypothesize it led a semi-aquatic lifestyle, using its tail for swimming, but at least one study has examined that idea closely and found evidence in jointure and musculature which do not allow the tail to function like a crocodile’s.
• Behind the Scenes: the proper size of its ears has proven attractive for paper wasps. If you spot a certain buzzing in its ears, let one of our staff members know and continue giving the sculpture a wide berth, as befitting the barriers.
• Behind the Scenes: during the early 2010s, this sculpture bore a green paint job. Since the arbor vitae surrounding it grew large, guests observed that it had a great camouflage which prevented them from thoroughly enjoying it, invisible as it had largely become. We therefore gave it a brighter color scheme of red and white, and then later its current fiery color scheme. Why fiery? Well, have you seen a more dragon-like dinosaur?!